


Unexpected But Good!

by polyjosten



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Aromantic, Asexuality, Fluff, Multi, Platonic Soulmates, polyfarms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21918403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polyjosten/pseuds/polyjosten
Summary: For sailorsav as part of the Epifest 2019!
Relationships: Chris "Chowder" Chow/Caitlin Farmer, Chris "Chowder" Chow/Caitlin Farmer/Derek "Nursey" Nurse/Will "Dex" Poindexter, Chris "Chowder" Chow/Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter, Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28
Collections: Polya Epifest 2019





	Unexpected But Good!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sailorsav](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailorsav/gifts).



> For sailorsav as part of the Epifest 2019!

For almost as long as they’d known each other, Chowder and Farmer had been attached at the hip. Compatible in most ways and great at compromise. No one had ever witnessed them fighting but that might just be because they had the decency to do it in private, truly the perfect couple.

You see with privacy and tradition most people waited a couple of months to show each other their soul marks as to not influence their decision to be life long bond partners. 

Everyone in the house knew Ransom and Holster had not taken such precautions and had jumped into being partners in chaos for life but that was a rarity. 

So when Chowder had come to the Haus mid-January- head covered in snow because he forgot to put on a hat- no one was surprised when he announced his soul mark matched Caitlin’s.

When Chowder wasn’t with Caitlin he was with the other two frogs. On a good day, they would laugh and cause a ruckus. On a bad day, Chowder was a mediator between the d men. Today he didn’t give them a chance to decide whether it was a good or a bad day.

“Guys! I’m just so-!” Chowder cut himself off seeming too energized to finished his thoughts. Walking into the kitchen where Dex and Nursey were sitting having a slow start to the day. They both acknowledged Chowder, then realized he was in a mood and let him work out his thoughts before they became coherent. 

From the bits and pieces, what they got was that it was their three month anniversary and Chowder wanted to do something special but because of the snowstorm they couldn’t go anywhere easily, so he changed plans last minute and decided to offer an exchange of marks.

After much jumping around the house and various versions of fist-pumping he stopped at the kitchen table and smiled dopily at the two men sitting there. 

“Can I show you guys my soul mark?”

Dex stopped eating his cereal and looked up from his Woodcraft magazine to look at Chowder then to Nursey, eyes wide and questioning. Nursey gave up all pretense of trying to act like he wasn’t paying attention and leaned away from his open book. 

“Sure, if that's what you want.” Nursey drawled

After finding out you are bonded there wasn’t much use for hiding soul marks but there was still an intimacy in seeing other’s marks. Neither Dex nor Nursey wanted to patronize Chowder but they felt the weight of this interaction. Letting Chowder have this moment with his best friends was important.

Chowder lifted his shirt up and under his right arm, high on his rib cage there was a delicate line that formed a sun except before the circle closed there was a wave curling into the center. The room was silent. 

“You said Caitlin shared your mark?”

“Yeah!”

“Huh.”

“What is it?”

“Well…” Will reached for his sleeve.

“Poindexter.” Nursey was looking at him confused.

“Nurse?”

“Are you about to do what I think you’re going to do?”

“Uh, what do you think I’m going to do?”

Nurse didn’t answer as he reached for the elbow of his sweater and hit the table “ow” he tried to push himself back in his chair before catching himself almost tipping the whole thing over and moving to stand up which caused him to stub his toe and hit his knee on the underside of the table before finally releasing his left arm from his sweater and raising it in the air. On the fleshy part of his arm was an almost connected sun with a wave swirling toward the middle. 

“Were you going to do this?”

Dex doesn’t look at him just looks at his still raised arms mouth agape.

“How are we supposed to be soulmates?”

“Come on, don’t be like that. Why do you think we always hang out? Haven’t you ever questioned why we always end up together? Like last Saturday when you were bored so you climbed in through my window?” Nursey spoke like he was telling one of his conspiracy theories but softened as he realized that wouldn’t help but to grate on Dex’s nerves, “Just consider the possibility that there’s something there.”

The upside was that Dex didn’t seem anything but immensely perplexed. Chowder was stuck still shirt raised looking all over Dex as if he was trying to suddenly develop x-ray vision and see where his mark may be.

“Well, I guess I should show you mine.”

Dex moved aside the fabric covering his mark.

Chowder finally moved. “I have to call Caitlin!”

*

Caitlin entered the room and tackle both the d men, well really she hugged them and tried to bring them to the ground but they were too tall and hockey strong to go down so she ended up hanging from their necks. 

After another round of exchanged showing of skin, they settled down.

Caitlin’s overall feelings were generally “Unexpected but good!” Before diving into questions like, “How are you feeling? What are you thinking?” as she lead the three men to the horrid green couch sitting with her back to the arm, legs crossed in front of her. 

Chow sat on the other arm stretching over the back of the couch leaving room for the d men to share the two remaining cushions.

“I think it’s chill,” Nursey said

Caitlin reached around and thwapped Derek upside the head.

“Can you take this seriously? It’s a big decision.”

Chow spoke up, “I hope I didn’t make you feel like you had to show me…”

Both d men spoke up over top of each other “No!” “Not at all” “It’s fine, I promise.”

“You didn’t pressure us at all. I’m just not good at keeping secrets so I figured I would say it before I got awkward about it.”

“Do you think we could make this work? The four of us?” 

“Only if you want it to…”

“Romantically?” 

“Only if you want it to.”

Dex spoke up, “I’d like to take it slow.”

Caitlin reached her hand over to grab Dex’s as Chris let his arm unbend to squeeze his shoulder.

“Of course.” It was Nurse who reassured him.

The four of them shared smiles and the conversation guided into less serious topics. 

*

Three years and four degrees later things were much different yet much the same Chowder and Farmer were still attached at the hip, Nurse still read pretentious, yet subjectively profound books, and Chowder still never dressed correctly for the weather. What had changed though was how they treated their soul marks. Days at the beach (or lake rather as Chowder always pointed out), changing at the gym, any place they could socially appropriately take off their shirts they would. Dex was no longer in the feeling it out stage. And they were all… happy. Sure graduating and the next step of life was stressful but it felt better to be surrounded by your best friends, the people you loved the most, your soulmates. 

The arrangement works out so Dex was platonically linked with everyone and romantically linked with Nurse, Nurse was romantically linked with everyone and Chowder was romantically linked with Farmer and Nurse. Dex was largely aromantic but some days he wanted a little more loving and Derek was never shy about sharing his affection. And when Dex solely wanted to share platonic love and affection everyone was more than happy to join in. 

There is always the option to make the bonding ceremony public, invite everyone they’ve ever met and share a moment with a large crowd but truly they only needed each other. They could party with their friends tonight at the get together they had planned. This morning was about them. They all woke up together in the apartment they chose to rent close to the Bruins stadium where Chowder got drafted. They all got ready together uncurling themselves from the cuddle puddle in their living room where they’d fallen asleep the previous night. They had marathoned The Good Place which is surprisingly the one show that doesn’t start arguments in the house. 

They went into the ceremony as one united front. Sharing love and friendship and probably scaring the master of the ceremony a little who may not have been told the bond was between four people.

It was still cold and nippy out in Boston but the four of them huddled around each other wearing only soft yet ornate pants. The clothing was an old tradition that was modified for wherever the soul marks were placed on the body, other times people wore dresses to show off their legs. Ribbons would be wrapped around their hands after the official announcement of coming together, in their case they would make a circle that had a sort of interlocking star shape in the middle. 

No words were spoken expect “I accept.” 

*

“Is Shitty going to be able to make it tonight?” Chowder asked.

“He said he was postponing a meeting with his client so he could join the festivities and Lardo said if he even looks at his phone she was going to chuck it into a lake.” Nurse replied.

“I think with the combined forces of Ransom, Holster, May, and April he’s not going to have time to look at his phone,” Dex said.

“Are we sure you should have left that up to them? I know it’s last-minute but we could totally bail on our own party. They’re just glad they have an excuse to live it up again.” Chowder said.

“I too would like to ‘live it up’. I would also like to rib the taddies a little more.” Caitlin joked.

They heard the tadpoles were considering having a ceremony of their own and were in the process of debating whether to make it public or not. Ford wanted public, Whiskey wanted it private, Tango wanted them both happy and Chad wanted them to figure it out on their own. 

Samwell really was a place for diversity and unusual circumstance, having three soulmates was rare, four almost unheard of but having two sets of four-paired soulmates on the same hockey team was almost entirely bizarre.

“Did y’all get any details on what they’re planning?” Chowder inquired.

“No, I even tried to hack into their messenger accounts but they’ve left no paper trail… or paperless trail.” Dex trailed off.

“It can’t be too crazy right,” Caitlin asked “Right?” 

When they arrived at the Haus 2.0 the most notable thing was the four balloon spires visible in the backyard. As they walked up to the front door the loud music playing in the house suddenly cut off and there were a few scraps of furniture. Dex and Chowder shared a look of confusion as Nurse knocked on the door. 

Holster immediately swung the door open as if he had his hand on the handle already. 

“Hey! Welcome, welcome! You’ve been here before! Make yourselves right at home!” 

“Uh, okay. Where’s-” Derek was cut off by a chorus of noise as people from every corner of the room jumped out and yell what was supposed to be “Surprise” but the timing was off.

Chowder politely said “Thank you!’ as Dex said, “We knew this was happening.” 

Holster ignored Dex and threw his arm around Chowder, “Aw, no problem! For your big day! It’s the least we can do!”

Bitty came and ducked under Holster’s arm to hug Chowder, “Oh, honey I’m so proud of you!” he reached over to the closest person who happened to be Nursey, “Y’all get in here. I feel so old! The frogs all bonded?” 

While the rest of the party was carrying on back to whatever they were doing before they had to hide, a small crowd had gathered around the couple (quaduple?). Dex could see his family trying to worm their way closer, awkwardly holding red solo cups but all the giant Samwell’s Men’s Hockey Team Alumni were blocking any family bonding time.

Bitty let them go and wiped his eyes before moving to put his around Jack. Ransom clapped his hands, “Okay, so take a look around we got games, we got a bouncy castle, we got drinks, we’ve got music, we got your families, take your pick, enjoy yourself!” 

After a series of pats on the back and congratulations, they all dispersed. 

Despite all the bro-ness of it all and the weird dichotomy of that versus their family, it was a nice time. They even got to sneak a few moments that were just to themselves before someone wolf-whistled and banged on the door to the room they had escaped into. 

“This kind of feels like saying goodbye.”

“Really? This feels like a new hello to me. A new chapter.”


End file.
